Most Read Posts

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 89 other followers

Copyright Note

Please do not use photos and text from this blog without crediting the source.

a sweater simplified

My short post on embroidery has ended up taking me in an unexpected direction thanks to Melina’s great comments and reading recommendations. I’d like to continue that conversation (hopefully, with another post) but it will have to wait a little bit so I can do more reading. Till then, please feel free to join in, add to my reading list, and share your thoughts.

Today I have a post about something not completely different: knitting, which, like embroidery is a great medium for storytelling, expressing your identity, and giving voice to enduring traditions.

These aims can make for a very interesting knitting experience. But sometimes you feel the need for the opposite: making things as simple as you can. That’s where I’m at with my knitting these days. And that is why this cardigan is an important addition to my wardrobe.

I worked on it on and off for a few weeks. I don’t knit much since I discovered I had been giving myself a repetitive strain injury by trying to squeeze knitting into all those in-between times in the day (commutes, waiting in waiting rooms and offices, reading, TV time, you name it). It was fun while it lasted… and then not fun at all. Now I try to take it slow and be a bit more strategic about choosing projects.

So I’m all about identifying wardrobe gaps not filled during the time of the knitting frenzy. Simple sweaters, with an emphasis on cardigans, are basically that gap.

This shawl-collared fellow is as simple as it gets (I wrote about the pattern and the changes I made here). Its one stand-out feature is ribbing in the lovely reversible mistake rib. That choice was inspired by a very fashionable three-year-old I once saw who was wearing a very grown-up cabled sweater that had mistake-rib details. What can I say, I take inspiration where I can find it.

Lest you think I only pay attention to precocious trendsetters: I’m finding that my new slow-knitting approach is benefitting from sewing. I reinforced my buttonholes, adapting advice from thesetwo tutorials.

Do you knit? If not, are you interested in learning to knit?

PS: Sewing machine status: still out of commission, and it will likely take a while to get it fixed.